Suit Spotlights Police Brutality Complaints in Atlantic City

A federal judge is raising questions about the Atlantic City police department's handling of brutality complaints against its officers.

Atlantic City Police Department (Image courtesy of Facebook)

U.S. District Judge Joel Schneider in Camden is presiding over a 2010 excessive-force lawsuit against two Atlantic City officers who have faced nearly 80 complaints between them. None has been upheld by Internal Affairs.

The city previously provided summaries of the cases against the officers, Sgt. Frank Timek and Officer Sterling Wheaten. But The Press of Atlantic City reports Schneider has ordered the city to turn over the full Internal Affairs reports.

The judge says those reports are needed to determine if the city has been, as alleged, "deliberately indifferent to the violent propensities of its police officers."

The city police union says it's wrong to judge the officers by the number of complaints received for internal review.